On The Fly: Top stock stories for Tuesday

Stocks began the session in negative territory and the averages spent most of the session unsuccessfully trying to claw their way back to the flat line. Investors are in the throes of the busiest week of the earnings season and had a barrage of earnings to pore through. Some of the country's largest corporations reported last night and this morning, but investors were awaiting the results from the country's most valuable company, Apple (AAPL), which came out after the close. The volume during the day was light and there was barely a mention of oil prices, which slipped back below $50 per barrel. ECONOMIC NEWS: In the U.S., the FHFA home price index for August rose 0.7% to 237.9, above the consensus forecast for a 0.5% increase for the month. The Conference Board's consumer confidence reading dropped to 98.6 in October, below consensus of 101.0. The Richmond Fed manufacturing index edged up to -4 in October. COMPANY NEWS: Shares of Under Armour (UA) dropped over 13% after the company reported better than expected third quarter results, but tempered its growth expectations for the next few fiscal years... Also lower was General Motors (GM), which slipped 4% despite reporting much better than expected third quarter earnings on strong North American truck and SUV sales... Several Dow members reported quarterly results last night and this morning. Following their reports, Procter & Gamble (PG) rose 3.4%, Merck (MRK) gained 2% and United Technologies (UTX) added 1.8%, while Visa (V) fell 1.4%, DuPont (DD) dropped 0.6%, Caterpillar (CAT) slid 1.75% and 3M (MMM) declined nearly 3%... Shares of Twitter (TWTR) fell over 4% following a report by Bloomberg saying the company could announce plans to cut about 8% of its workforce, or about 300 people, as early as this week. Additionally, the microblog serve operator rescheduled its third quarter earnings report to Thursday, October 27 before market open to "avoid overlapping" with several other results announcements. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Global Blood Therapeutics (GBT), which advanced 11% after the company announced a deal with the FDA regarding the design of its pivotal trial for GBT440. Also higher was Crane (CR), which gained 11% after the company reported better than expected third quarter earnings per share and revenue. Among the noteworthy losers was Sonic (SONC), which dropped more than 16.5% after giving disappointing annual guidance. The fast food chain expects weak consumer spending and competitive pressure to carry into its current fiscal year. Also lower after earnings was Sprint (S), which slid 6% despite reporting a smaller than expected loss and posting its first year over year revenue gain in two years. INDEXES: The Dow fell 53.76, or 0.3%, to 18,169.27, the Nasdaq lost 26.43, or 0.5%, to 5,283.40, and the S&P 500 declined 8.17, or 0.38%, to 2,143.16.